A RARE SET OF THREE CHINESE GILT AND LACQUERED BRONZE FIGURES OF GUANDI, GUAN PING AND ZHOU CANG

16TH/17TH CENTURY

Each warrior cast wearing elaborate armour and flowing robes, Guandi sits holding the end of his beard in one hand, his face and hands with red pigment, Guan Ping, his son, holding Guandi's seal before him in both hands, both Guan Ping and Zhou Cang stand on stepped rectangular integral supports, 33cm max, 7kg. (3)

Cf. Sotheby's Paris 9th June 2010, lot 197 for a pair of smaller Ming Dynasty gilt-bronze figures depicting Guan Ping and Zhou Cang.

The three revered figures were later immortalised in Luo Guan Zhong's 14th Century historical novel 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. With Guandi a general of the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25AD - 220AD) who founded the state of Shu Han.